In the first lunar month of the 28th year of Chengtian, the expeditionary force sent by Chen Ming to South Africa had just passed through India, and the flying pigeon sent a powerful news to Chen Ming - the assassination of Tiepu Sultan of the Mysore Kingdom of India.

The death of the Mysore Tiger is truly shocking and unspeakable.

The word assassination has become a hot topic in the Chinese press for a while, and this line of assassination can really pry the wheels of the world.

A well-known and powerful figure among the indigenous princes of India, Sultan Tiepu rose to prominence after repelling another attack by the British. It can be described as 'famous in India'.

And Tiepu himself took advantage of his 'victory' over the British and his prestige to readjust and operate on the political structure of the Kingdom of Mysore. For example, the tax revenue that was collected by Tiepu, Tiepu formed the Ministry of Finance, and also formed a police system.

This is what the previous Tiepu Sultan wanted to do, but he didn't dare to do and couldn't do.

Previously, Tiepu could only set up regularized customs at a few important ports in the Kingdom of Mysore, which was far from being comparable to the tax reform.

However, both policies have also met with strong local resistance, and in the case of the Ministry of Finance, the tax reform is not so easy, and there have been many violent rebellions in the Kingdom of Mysore, which would not have been possible if it had not been for the strong suppression of Tiepu with his military power.

Many things of the Ministry of Finance have to rely on the garrisons in various places to do it, otherwise the local nobles, officials and local tax collectors below will not honestly hand over the right to collect taxes!

It's just that the tax reform implemented by Tiepu Sultan has obviously hurt the interests of many people, especially the local nobles, officials and tax collectors below, these people rely on tax collection to enrich their own pockets, and now the Ministry of Finance has concentrated all the tax collection powers, and even explicitly ordered local governments not to collect taxes on their own, and local government funds are all allocated by the Ministry of Finance, which is not to cut off the financial path of most people!

Cutting off people's financial means is like killing parents! This is a great hatred.

This kind of 'reform', which can be said to be very drastic, would not have been implemented at all in peacetime, but what kind of peacetime would it be now?

Mysore grew stronger through the military reforms, and eventually they single-handedly resisted the British attack.

Tiep's father, Haider Ali Khan, fought with the British for ten years, and when he died, he lamented that the British were invincible, and instructed Tiepu to improve the relationship between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British. And now Mysore is so strong that it is not afraid of the British. Although many people in the Kingdom of Mysore know the British in India, it is only a small part of the entire British population.

Chen Ming believed that Tiepu had already figured out everything before making such a decision. Winning the 'Great Patriotic War' not only won the prestige and popular hearts of Tiepu, but also strengthened his control over the army to a certain extent. As a king with a strong army, the local nobles and officials do things honestly, and it is okay to obediently accept the words of the leader arranged by the Sultan Tiepu, if he doesn't want to stir up trouble with a long eye, Tiepu doesn't even plan to waste time investigating clearly, and directly sends troops over to arrest the original officials and cut them down!

This kind of one-size-fits-all management is very rough, and there will even be a lot of wrongful and innocent situations in the process, but in the current situation, any intolerance for others is cruel to Tiepu himself.

If Chen Ming sits in Tiepu's position, he will definitely carry the power of 'victory', and through this violent means of governance, he will control the entire Mysore Kingdom at a deeper level in the shortest possible time. The local power in this ghost place of India is too strong, and this crown of Tieputa's father is not so much a rebellion, but rather a local nobleman who abandoned the old incompetent old alliance leader and chose a new alliance leader who is more capable and able to protect everyone.

Haider Ali has reached the pinnacle of the old Mysore kingdom step by step, and the foundation is very solid, but Tiepu's foundation is a little not solid. After the death of his father, although Tiepu still held the power, the entire kingdom foundation was slowly corroded by the erosion of countless nobles and corrupt officials, Tiepu knew this very well, but he was powerless to change. Even if he had strong support from China at that time, he did not dare to launch a reform at the risk of the entire kingdom falling apart, and only the Ali family's deepest army could be used.

Besides, the Marathas were still standing aside at that time, and the Kingdom of Mysore had the great enemy of the British, so how could Tiepu dare to act rashly?

And now?

The British put out the fire, and their main energies were still in Europe; The Marathas also have a new threat to the Gurkhas, and the Sikhs have not been at peace lately, and it is too late for the Marathas to fight Tiepu.

The external threat of the two has all disappeared, and Tiepu naturally wants to take the opportunity to rectify the interior. The local financial power and the police system are the strong institutions that are the focus of Tiepu's implementation.

Looking at the other kingdoms in southern India, they are basically still running the same way, and the so-called king is just an alliance leader with some strength to rely on, and such a kingdom has no resistance in the face of the British.

Even as long as the British secretly promised some benefits, a kingdom that seemed to have a lot of territory and good military and financial strength was in a state of fragmentation in the blink of an eye, and the local nobility was actually independent, withholding taxes, etc., which could make a kingdom immediately vulnerable.

Chen Ming also asked people to convey his appreciation to Tiepu, is China repairing its friendship with the Kingdom of Mysore, Chen Ming is saying that he does not object to Tiepu's violent methods, and even agrees with it in his heart. Because fundamentally speaking, the fundamental purpose of the tax reform is to control all taxes in the hands of Tiepu Sultan, so as to avoid the possibility of corruption and the continued expansion of local power, in other words, this is an important means of centralization, Chen Ming also expects Tiepu to be able to have a good time with the British in the coming years, how can he oppose it.

Under these circumstances, Tiepu's tax reform and police system were successfully implemented in the Kingdom of Mysore. Chen Mingdu was already thinking about when to sell a few more hexagonal cannons to Tiepu, where did he think that Tiepu would be assassinated?

"Your Majesty, Tiepu has recently been considering the formation of the Mysore Navy, and is about to sign a ship purchase agreement. This time he was on his way to the beach to inspect the port...... and then the Assassin got around and knocked him down with two shots with a handcuff.

Mysore's tax reform is going fairly smoothly and the finances are not difficult. And Tiepu thought of the previous war with the British, the rampage of the British warships and the coastal blockade, and deeply felt sad that the Kingdom of Mysore had no sea defense.

He wanted to solve the problem, but he didn't expect two bullets to kill him. Before he could even leave a will, the person died.

Just when Chen Ming received this news, the Kingdom of Mysore was already lively.

After a commotion in the kingdom of Seringabadan, Tiepu's third son, Gulzari, had fled from Seringabadan, and Tiepu's younger brother Singh had also escaped from Seringabadan. The whole kingdom is like a warehouse full of gunpowder, and it only takes a little spark for a huge explosion to destroy the entire country.

Tiep's heir, Bahadur, had no control over them at all.

……

Even the army under Tiepu's command was divided, and Tiepu's sons were not the only ones left with Gulzari and Bahadur, and his younger brother was not the only one left with Singh, and the reason why these two men acted was because they both had their own power in the army of the king of Mysore.

Singh was directly one of the high-ranking generals of this army, and had no small influence in the southwest of the Kingdom of Mysore; Gulzari's uncle was also a high-ranking commander of the Mysore royal army, and at the same time a great nobleman, mainly in the southeast of the Mysore Kingdom.

"We must change our armament and equip ourselves with the best muskets and cannons so that we can withstand the Seringabadan."

Less than five days after Bahadur signed an arms trade agreement with the Chinese consul in Mysore, Guri [Karikat Singh], hundreds of miles away in Seringabadan, received the news.

The news put a lot of pressure on Singh, and now in the situation in Mysore, he and Gulzari are natural allies, and the combination of the two is enough to immobilize Bahadur's army. Compared with Singh, who ran to Guri on the west coast of India, and Gulzari who ran to Teminader in the eastern part of the Mysore Kingdom, it seems that the threat to Seringabadan is greater.

The army under Bahadur's direct control was not enough for him to fight on two fronts, but if Bahadur got new rifles and hexagonal cannons from the Chinese, compared to Singh and Gulzari, who only had smoothbore guns and old smoothbore guns, the advantage would be large enough for Bahadur to fight on two fronts.

Singh and the Gulzari could escape, but they could not hold on to the wealth of the Mysore treasury, and Bahadur had enough gold and silver to buy the latest muskets and the most powerful artillery from China.

Singh frowned at his financial officer and said, "I told you before, how about using customs duties and salt policies as collateral to borrow from abroad, do you have eyebrows?" ”

Bahadur is going to have new rifles and hexagonal cannons, and so must he Singh. Only in this way can the balance of power be guaranteed.

"Your Highness, I have visited the French and British envoys in Guri for this matter, but the situation is not clear. They lacked confidence in our guarantee of repayment, and Consul Roy of France spoke to me, and although he did not say it explicitly, he could still hear it. The British, on the other hand, are excessive, they can provide loans, but they require that the use of loans be regulated, and that we ensure that all spending on arms purchases must be spent on the British. As for Hyderabad [the court of the Marathas], I haven't been in contact with their real power figures, but I guess the situation is not too optimistic! ”

Bahadur's greatest advantage is that he has the support of the Chinese. The Chinese who did not return to China but chose to stay in Mysore are now united under Bahadur. In Singh's eyes, it is clear that the Chinese support Seringa Badan.

Singh was in a very bad mood when he heard this, and the French didn't talk about it if they were not interested, as far as they came to the shop in India now, it was not enough to use it in Hyderabad, where would it be distributed to Guri? The British, on the other hand, were able to take out loans, but restricted the 'use' of the money. What a bastard who took advantage of the fire to rob, he took out the customs and salt administration to take out a loan at this critical juncture in order to expand the army and change clothes, and he gave the money to the British, can the British guarantee to take out 20,000 new rifles and fifty hexagonal cannons immediately?

I'm afraid that if the British and Indian colonial forces count their active equipment, there are not so many in total!

By the time the British had sent their weapons from Europe to Guri, Singh felt that his head was already about to move.

It is impossible for the British to agree to such conditions.

They were too far away from India, and when the British weapons arrived, in the words of the Chinese, the daylilies were cold.

Feeling that he had to think of a solution, Singh said to his treasurer: "You send someone to Hyderabad immediately." ”

Singh believes that the Marathas would not want to see him defeated at this time. Now that the Marathas have Sikhism in the northwest and the Gurkha kingdom in the north, they must be willing to see a divided kingdom of Mysore. Including the British, who have no time to care about India, none of them want to see Mysore strong, and it is better to see Mysore than ......